Posted on: Monday, February 14, 2005
MILITARY AFFAIRS
Base closures could hurt Pearl Harbor
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Pearl Harbor shipyard labor leaders are worried that the Pentagon may use an upcoming round of military base closures to privatize one of four Navy shipyards — a trend they see as a growing one and a threat to jobs in Hawai'i.
U.S. Navy photos More than 90 percent of the work done by nearly 4,000 civilian workers — the state's largest industrial labor force — is focused on nuclear-submarine overhaul, including reactor core replacement for two aging Los Angeles-class attack subs.
Surface craft work largely is performed by private shipyards in Honolulu.
Although a third submarine, the USS Olympia, is expected to be overhauled in Pearl Harbor in fiscal 2006, the outlook after the two-year job is uncertain.
"They have maybe two more subs on the horizon that they have funded (for refurbishment), and they don't see funding any more. They see deactivating them," said Ben Toyama, western vice president for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
Shifting to "intermediate"-level repairs versus depot-level overhauls would particularly affect the approximately 1,000 engineers who work in and around the nuclear program at Pearl Harbor. Some of the jobs come with $80,000 salaries.
"The white-collar professionals, the engineer type of work that is required for an overhaul, we lose a lot of that if we just do maintenance and upkeep," Toyama said.
Privatizing the work of one of the Navy's four shipyards — at Portsmouth in Kittery, Maine; Norfolk in Portsmouth, Va.; Puget Sound in Bremerton, Wash.; and Pearl Harbor — would bring with it a domino-effect reorganization of duties within the yards.
Although defense agencies are prohibited from contracting out more than 50 percent of military depot work to private companies, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, representing 25,000 Navy shipyard workers, believes a loophole makes it possible to waive the "50-50" rule through the latest round of base closures.
Base list to be issued
U.S. Navy photos The International Federation wants lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Daniel Akaka and Dan Inouye, both Hawai'i Democrats, to enact legislation that would prevent the Pentagon from waiving the 50-50 rule through the base closure process.
Akaka, in a statement, said base closure does not supercede federal law, which is clear on the 50-50 split.
"I understand the concerns expressed, will monitor this situation, and will work closely with my colleagues to ensure that the law is followed," Akaka said.
Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said he could not comment on potential base closure issues.
Matt Hamilton, the Hawai'i-based president of the Metal Trades Council, the bargaining agent for 15 labor organizations, said shipyard privatization has been a concern for some time, "but I think it's a push by the Bush administration."
He added, "there's talk among the workers, not so much about BRAC, but privatization. There's always talk about that, because over the years, they've taken more and more work."
Toyama acknowledges there needs to be increased efficiency within the shipyard to make privatization less attractive.
"We've got so many safeguards and so many safety valves built into our system, it takes three guys to change a light bulb," he said. "We need to go back and do it with one guy."
Pearl Harbor unlikely U.S. Navy photos If Norfolk is closed, aircraft carrier work could go to private contractors, Toyama said. Pearl Harbor is not seen as a target for closure.
"It makes no sense to do the (carrier overhaul) work in two different places, so they will go to one source," he said. "So the rest of the shipyards will have to take everything but the aircraft carriers, for instance."
The Navy continues to look favorably at stationing an aircraft carrier in Hawai'i, Toyama said.
There is a "tremendous amount of buzz going around with regard to the planning process for a carrier in Hawai'i," he said, "and it becomes more and more positive — the things that they (the Navy) are looking at and asking about, the housing capacity, the berthing capacity."
Short of the big depot-level repairs, however, the Pearl Harbor shipyard "would have repair work and emergent repair work ... but we won't be doing valve repairs and overhaul of the turbines, things like that," Toyama said.
The arrival of additional ships to make up a carrier strike group would add to shipyard work, but the overall effect would be maintaining jobs in certain areas, while possibly losing them in others, Toyama said.
'Extremely level'
U.S. Navy photos The "extended refueling overhaul" of the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Buffalo, a job started in 2002, was the first such reactor core replacement work for Pearl Harbor. Another year of work remains on the USS Bremerton.
The shipyard also is seeking to have the USS San Francisco brought here for repairs after the sub rammed an undersea mountain south of its homeport of Guam on Jan. 18. One sailor was killed and another 23 were injured. A damage survey is being completed in Guam.
Shipyard spokesman Jason Holm said for at least the next several years, the workload here "looks extremely level."
The International Federation's Biggs said he believed the Pentagon originally was considering privatizing up to all four Navy shipyards, and Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, which just won a contract to manage the construction of two new British aircraft carriers, was being looked at to run shipyard operations.
"We feel like, if one were to be privatized, then it's only a matter of time before the others go as well," Biggs said.
Toyama said the privatization drive can be viewed as "doom and gloom," or the public shipyard workers can improve efficiency.
"We've got to become more efficient and more productive so that we become more competitive," he said. "If we can beat the (privatization) prices, we'll really be able to do good."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
A subsequent reshuffling of shipyard work could mean that even if Pearl Harbor were to get an aircraft carrier, major shipyard work might not be undertaken here.
Shipyard workers at Pearl Harbor have done repairs on two Los Angeles-class attack subs, the USS Buffalo and USS Bremerton.
The Pentagon has said it has 25 percent more military base capacity than it needs. A list of bases proposed to be closed through the latest Base Realignment and Closure round will be issued in May. A panel will review the list and report back by September.
Workers perform repairs at Pearl Harbor. More than 90 percent of work done by 4,000 civilian workers is focused on nuclear-submarine overhaul.
Matt Biggs, legislative director for the International Federation, said either Portsmouth or Norfolk may be targeted for privatization.
Submarines sit in dry dock at the Pearl Harbor shipyard, where a spokesman says the workload "looks extremely level" for the next several years.
Under a scenario of Norfolk closing and with consolidation of work, Puget Sound, a bigger yard with about 8,000 workers, could lose surface-craft work and, in turn, take submarine work away from Pearl Harbor, Toyama said.
Welders perform repairs at Pearl Harbor. Shifting to "intermediate"-level repairs instead of depot-level overhauls would affect the 1,000 engineers who work in and around the nuclear program at Pearl Harbor.
